Search form

You are here

Blogs

‘I’m not going to visit Iceland until the whale hunts stop’ is a common response to hearing about the whale slaughter that takes place every year in the waters around this spectacular country. And it’s a perfectly natural reaction. But just take a moment and think. Shouldn’t we be supporting Iceland’s whale watch industry and growing anti-whaling movement?

This Wednesday will see the launch event in Brussels of Dolphinaria-Free Europe, a coalition of European animal welfare organisations and wildlife professionals, including WDC.

Invited to take part in activities surrounding the launch are ten pupils from Devonshire Road Primary School in Bolton, UK - apparently the youngest ever visitors to the European Parliament. Their invitation comes from Sajid Karim MEP, and their plan is to take their anti-captivity cause to the heart of European politics.

Changing policies to help protect North Atlantic right whales is not just something that is important to WDC; we have been collaborating and joining forces with other conservation organizations to make a real impact for this critically endangered species.

This week's Love Story episode comes from Sharon Young, the Marine Issues Field Director for the Human Society of the United States and speaks to the importance of working together and creating a village to save this critically endangered species.

As we head into the Ross Sea and journey past 70 degrees South both the weather and the internet connection become erratic!

These last few days at sea have been truly magical as the Last Ocean slowly reveals her secrets. Along the shore, Adelie penguin rookeries continue to colonise that same prime real estate of ice-free rock where the explorers of the Heroic Age built their huts a century ago.

About 20 years ago, my fascination with whales and dolphins began. Traveling around the world to see these majestic mammals in their natural environment has played an important role in my life ever since. Hector’s dolphins in New Zealand, humpback whales in Australia and the United States, Southern Right whales in South Africa, a blue whale in the Azores – every encounter is special. One place, however, had captured my heart many years ago and I was very excited when I finally had the chance to go there: Lime Kiln State Park on San Juan Island in Washington State, USA.

The US Department of Justice recently announced the successful prosecution of two perpetrators of a dolphin crime involving the shooting of bottlenose dolphins with a hunting bow. The incident involved brothers who shot at two dolphins who had stranded near Orangefield, Texas with a compound bow in July 2014. One dolphin was fatally wounded, and the other was subsequently rescued by wildlife agents and returned to more suitable habitat. The brothers plead guilty to federal wildlife violations of taking a marine mammal in a Texas courtroom on February 17th.